2,156 research outputs found
Child Health and Poverty in Pakistan
This study examines the health status of Pakistani children using two important indicators, morbidity and malnutrition measured by weight-for-age and height-for-age. The demand for medical services has also been determined. The main data source used in this study is the 2000-01 Pakistan Social-Economic Survey (PSES), which provides sufficient information on child health and poverty. Findings of the study show that both exclusive breastfeeding during the first 4-5 months of life and immunisation can help control the occurrence of illness significantly among the young children (0-5 months). These also reinforce the role of mother’s education in the production of child health (nutritional status). This role of mother’s education is found to be more pronounced in the poor families than in the non-poor families. The rise in poverty since the mid-1990s has adversely influenced the nutritional status of children. The basic issue is about how to reduce the household food insecurity. The benefits of recent high GDP growth may be transferred to the poor through employment generation, which has been slow in the past decade. Real incomes of the poor and the vulnerable segments of the population may also be protected against the rise in prices of essential food items. At present, the health and nutrition sector is getting only 0.7 percent of the GDP. Health care facilities in the country are curative in nature, and are heavily skewed in favour of the diagnostic and treatment side, not preventive healthcare aspects. More resources should be made available for preventive healthcare aspects. Coverage of child immunisation should be enhanced, and the provision of safe drinkingwater may be given high priority in the social sector policies.Medical, Child Health
Recent Rise in Poverty and Its Implications for Poor Households in Pakistan
There is sample evidence that poverty which declined rapidly in Pakistan in the 1970s and 1980s has increased in the 1990s.1 This rise in poverty is likely to have adversely affected the ability of poor households to enrol their young children in schools. The cost of schooling even when it is free is usually the most pressing obstacles for poor people to send their children in school. Similarly, health correlates strongly with poverty. This does not mean that poverty is itself a direct cause of diseases, but it lies behind other causes of disease such as in-sanitary living conditions, lack of adequate nutrition, poor access to safe drinking water, and sanitation and bad working conditions [World Bank (1993)]. Because of these factors, the poor are more affected by communicable diseases than are the rich. They have also less access to modern health facilities. This paper examines recent trends in poverty and their impact on primary school enrolment, health status and housing conditions in Pakistan.
Demographic Transition and Youth Employment in Pakistan
There is convincing evidence that Pakistan has entered the demographic bonus phase; child dependency is declining and youth share in the total population is rising. This paper has examined youth employment in the context of demographic transition evidenced since the early 1990s. Changes in the level of educational attainment have also been analysed. The study has used the data from Pakistan Demographic Surveys and Labour Force Surveys carried out between 1990 and 2005. Findings of the study show that the benefits of demographic transition in terms of rising share of youth in the total population has partially been translated through development of their human capital and productive absorption in the local labour market. While the pace of human capital formation seems to be satisfactory in urban Pakistan, it is dismal in rural areas, particularly for females. High levels of both female inactivity across the education categories and unemployment for males as well as females urge a strong youth employment policy in Pakistan to reap the benefits of the ongoing demographic transition. Youth are a source of development, and a high priority may be placed on preparing them with the skills needed for their adjustment in the labour market.Demographic Transition, Youth, Employment, Pakistan
Chronic and Transitory Poverty in Pakistan: Evidence from a Longitudinal Household Survey
This paper analyses the incidence of chronic and transitory poverty in Pakistan in both urban and rural settings. The findings are that rural poverty is severer and also chronic as compared to transitory poverty in urban centres. The main factor behind this phenomenon is the homogeneity of the rural set-up which affects the employment and wage levels adversely. On the other hand, in the urban areas, heterogeneous population with diverse occupations provides better employment and wage opportunities. Furthermore, illiteracy, landlessness, lack of ownership of dwellings, and dependency on sharecropping are the main factors accentuating rural poverty. The paper also analyses the zakat element of the safety net strategy. Contrary to the prevailing perception that zakat does not reach the actually poor, it turns out that in fact zakat has become an identification mark for the chronic poor. The findings of this paper have significant implications for the poverty reduction strategy of the Government of Pakistan.Poverty, Chronic Poverty, Household Surveys Longitudinal, Pakistan
Poverty, Gender, and Primary School Enrolment in Pakistan
Primary education is at the base of the pyramid of education, and is regarded as a fundamental human right today. In addition, it has several tangible social and economic effects. As an essential component of human capital, primary education plays an important role in the economic growth and development of a country.1 Its impact on several other socioeconomic variables has also been documented in the literature. To quote a few examples, Butt (1984) has found that five or more years of a farmer’s education lead to increased farm productivity, reduced use of farm labour, and increased use of yield augmenting inputs. Azhar (1988) also reports a significant relationship between the number of years of schooling and increase in farm output due to increased technical efficiency. Studies of the rates of returns to education attribute a positive value to the rate of returns to primary education.2 This means that by acquiring primary education one can increase one’s earnings. Every policy document prepared by the Government of Pakistan aims at attaining universal primary education. However, it is also true that each of these documents has advanced the date for achieving the target specified in the previous one. The net enrolment rates at the primary level show that we are still far from this target.
Production of Cognitive and Life Skills in Public, Private, and NGO Schools in Pakistan.
The share of private and NGO schools in primary education has substantially increased over time, though the public sector is still a major player in this area. The present study analyses the factors determining the quality of education offered by the three types of schools and draws policy recommendations for improving primary education in Pakistan. The study compares learning achievement of Class 4 students enrolled in 50 public, private, and NGO schools located across six districts of Pakistan and in Azad Kashmir in terms of their scores in Mathematics, Urdu, and General Knowledge tests. The analysis shows that, practically, there is no gap between public and NGO schools in terms of the test scores of their students. However, a significant test score gap was found between the students enrolled in public and private schools. This gap was largely explained by family background and school-related variables, including teachers’ qualification and student/teacher ratio. However, the performance of private schools was not uniform across districts. In some districts public schools performed even better than private and NGO schools. The findings of this study highlight the need for improving the quality of education in public schools by recruiting more qualified teachers and improving overall supervision. Teacher training is the area where the public and private sectors can benefit by pooling their resources and expertise.
The Persistence and Transition of Rural Poverty in Pakistan: 1998-2004
This study has used two rounds of the two panel data sets to examine the poverty dynamics in rural Pakistan (Sindh and Punjab). The Pakistan Socio- Economic Survey (PSES ) covers two periods, 1998 and 2000, while the Pakistan Rural Household Survey (PRHS) covers the 2001 and 2004 period. More than one-fifth of the households were chronically poor in the PSES rounds , and 11 percent in the PRHS rounds. Further, both chronic and transitory poverty are higher in Sindh and southern Punjab than in centra l and northern Punjab. Illiteracy, household size, dependency ratio, lack of livestock, landlessness, lack of ownership of dwellings, and health expenditure are the factors responsible for aggravating long-term poverty. The higher incidence of transitory poverty in rural Sindh and southern Punjab indicates the impact of large investments made in the public sector to raise the living standards there to the level of the better-off regions.Poverty, Chronic Poverty, Household Panel Datasets, Rural Pakistan
Labour Market Dynamics in Pakistan: Evidence from the Longitudinal Data
The bulk of research on labour market conditions in Pakistan has concentrated on the economic activity rate, the number of employed persons, or the unemployment rate at a particular point in time. These stock measures of labour market situation are useful from a policy viewpoint as they give a broad indication of the dimension of the problem. For example, the recent labour force surveys show an increase in the level of open unemployment from 5.9 percent in 1997-98 to 7.8 percent in 1999-2000 [Pakistan (2001)]. There is also an emerging consensus that during the 1990s poverty has increased at the national as well as for rural and urban areas of the country [Qureshi and Arif (2001)]. Labour market is considered as the main route for establishing the link between macro policies, the resulting GDP growth and poverty alleviation [Rahman (2002)]. Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (IPRSP) and other development plans have suggested various targets of employment creation for poverty reduction. The stock measures of labour market conditions, such as unemployment rate, are considered to be inadequate from the viewpoint of developing appropriate policy responses. There is a need to gain further insights by examining the structure of labour market in terms of its dynamic components: these being the turnover of persons into and out of the labour force and turnover into and out of employment and unemployment pools
Part Two- Remittance Inflows, Growth, and Poverty- Effects of Overseas Migration on Household Consumption, Education, Health and Labour Supply in Pakistan
Paul Cook and Sarah Mosedale (eds.). Regulation, Markets and Poverty. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2007. Price not given.
Most developing countries have been pursuing structural
adjustment programmes, driven by the World Bank and the IMF, for more
than 25 years without initially recognising the importance of regulation
for economic liberalisation. Without regulation, the potential
advantages of liberalising markets were in danger of being diminished in
terms of improved efficiency and welfare. As a consequence, new forms of
regulation have been emerging that cover health, environment, industry,
employment and so on. This book examines the concepts and theories that
have driven these reforms and the particular contexts that have
influenced and conditioned them. The research presented in the book was
carried out at the Centre on Regulation and Competition (CRC),
University of Manchester, the United Kingdom, over the past five years.
It contains fourteen chapters organised in five parts: competition,
regulatory governance, regulation, capacity building and
poverty
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